the year, for a trial of the Nature of that I design’d; it being about he middle of May before I was able to begin an Experiment which should have then been two moneths old; but such as it was, it will not perhaps be impertinent to Give You this Narrative of it. At the time newly Mention’d, I caus’d My Gardiner (being by Urgent Occasions Hinder’d from being present myself) to dig out a convenient quantity of good Earth, and dry it well in an Oven, to weigh it, to put it in an Earthen pot almost level with the Surface of the ground, and to set in it a selected seed he had before received from me, for that purpose, of Squash, which is an Indian kind of Pompion, that Growes apace; this seed I Ordered Him to Water only with Rain or Spring Water. I did not (when my Occasions permitted me to visit it) without delight behold how fast it Grew, though unseasonably sown; but the Hastning Winter Hinder’d it from attaining any thing neer its due and Wonted magnitude; (for I found the same Autumn, in my Garden, some of those plants, by Measure, as big about as my Middle) and made me order the having it taken Up; Which about the Middle of October was carefully Done by the same Gardiner, who a while after sent me this account of it; I have Weighed the Pompion with the Stalk and Leaves, all which Weighed three pound wanting a quarter; Then I took the Earth, baked it as formerly, and found it just as much as I did at First, which made me think I had not dry’d it Sufficiently: then I put it into the Oven twice More, after the Bread was Drawn, and Weighed it the Second time, but found it Shrink little or nothing.
But to deal Candidly with You, Eleutherius, I must not conceal from You the Event of another Experiment of this Kind made this present Summer, wherein the Earth seems to have been much more Wasted; as may appear by the following account, Lately sent me by the same Gardiner, in these Words. *To give You an Account of your Cucumbers, I have Gain’d two Indifferent Fair Ones, the Weight of them is ten Pound and a Halfe, the Branches with the Roots Weighed four Pounds wanting two Ounces; and when I had weighed them I took the Earth, and bak’d it in several small Earthen Dishes in an Oven; and when I had so done, I found